Greer police said they were flagged down in a Walmart parking lot Sunday night by someone reporting screaming toddlers left in a car.

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An officer said as he walked through the parking lot on the Walmart on Wade Hampton Boulevard in Greer looking for the vehicle, he could hear a child screaming, even though the windows of the SUV were rolled up.

The officer said a male toddler in the back seat of the SUV was screaming continuously and rocking back and forth. A female toddler, who was also in the backseat, was unresponsive, the officer said. The SUV door was unlocked, and another officer who had arrived at the location opened the door to check on the children.

The officers said they were unable to awaken the girl, who they said was breathing shallowly at the time. The officers said the children were filthy and had soiled themselves, and they called for EMS.

When they searched the car to try to find identification they found drug paraphernalia including hypodermic needles and a glass pipe, and they also found a substance that appeared to be meth, police said.

Several minutes later, a woman, later identified as 37-year-old Audrey Thompson Atkinson, came out of the Walmart pushing a cart filled with items, police said.

Officers said they recognized Atkinson as a chronic drug abuser with whom they were familiar. She was taken into custody.

Police said as they processed Atkinson’s purse, they found items they determined had been shoplifted.

Investigators said that a Walmart loss prevention officer provided surveillance video showing Atkinson going into the store at 10:12 p.m. and coming out of the store at 10:50 p.m. The officer also provided video from inside that store that investigators say shows Atkinson shoplifting.

The police report said when Atkinson was later at the jail, she admitted she left the children alone in the car because they were sleeping and because she “had been using meth.”

After a Department of Social Services agent met with the toddlers’ father, they were released into his care.

Atkinson is charged with unlawful neglect of a child, shoplifting, possession of methamphetamine and having an open liquor container in her vehicle. She was being held in the Spartanburg County Detention Center.